Esca is a very good restaurant, and I very much enjoyed the three dinners I had there. Other high-end seafood restaurants I'd recommend are Le Bernardin (a good deal pricier than Esca) and Aquagrill (a little cheaper than Esca). But I think you'll like Esca just fine.

Esca is great. It's my "go to" restaurant for excellent food convenient to the theatre district. Depending on what you order, you could get out of Esca for $50, but you'd probably be limiting yourself to one main and a quartino of wine, or an appetizer and a main. I like it a lot.

For something less expensive in the seafood realm, you might consider Pearl Oyster Bar or Mary's Fish camp. But even these will set you back more than $25.

my one meal at esca was about 2 years ago and was very good. And it was considerably cheaper than Le Bernadin that is the best seafood restaurant that i have ever tried. But if money is not an object, Le B; if it is, Esca was fine 2 years ago.

You will always find contrary voices on ChowHound; that is just the nature of the beast.